PRAISE FOR DEMOCRACY DENIED
This is a must-read for everyone who values our nations bedrock principles. What Obama is trying to unilaterally impose on the American people is nothing short of regulatory tyranny. Phil Kerpen breaks down the Obama administrations regulatory onslaught and shows those of us who love the Constitution what we can do about it.
Mark Levin, bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio host
Phil Kerpen offers both a warning and a lesson about a radical minority and its concerted efforts to control the lives and voices of all Americans. Democracy Denied is a literal guidebook on the progressive game plannow its up to us to heed the warning.
Glenn Beck, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Democracy Denied demonstrates how President Obama is packing federal agencies with handpicked liberal activists who are rewarding campaign allies, punishing opponents, and pushing the failed Keynesian fiscal policies Americans rejected at the ballot box in 2010. Phil Kerpens must-read book provides much-needed solutions to the unaccountable bureaucrats who seek to control what cars we drive, the foods we eat, and even the lights we use.
U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina)
Obama is on a missionto conceal his socialist record behind a veil of moderation. Phil Kerpen pierces that veil and shows the Obama beneath. He has broken the Obama code.
Dick Morris, Fox News contributor
President Obama has sought from day one to bypass elected representatives in Congress and impose his liberal agenda by regulatory fiat. This unchecked regulatory assault is draining the lifeblood from our economy and eroding our liberties. Phil Kerpens book is an excellent tool for anyone seeking to understand the consequences of regulatory tyranny and the story of the REINS Actthe most important reform that, if passed, will restore accountability and balance to the regulatory process.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky)
You know Team Obama is up to no good, but you dont even know the half of it. Phil Kerpen takes you inside all the back rooms and back doors that these left-wing power-grabbers have used to subvert the will of the peopleand trample the rule of law. Democracy Denied exposes you to the true size and scope of the Obama regulatory Leviathan. Kerpens comprehensive research will make your blood boil and stir you to action.
Michelle Malkin, Fox News contributor
and bestselling author of Culture of Corruption
The American people are the most innovative in the world, but they are being held back by the Obama administrations extreme regulatory agenda. Phil Kerpen cuts to the heart of this problem and shows us the path forward.
U.S. Representative Mike Pence (R-Indiana)
Federal regulations have the slippery tentacles of an octopus strangling businesses, families, and workers. Democracy Denied exposes the threats to economic freedom from Barack Obamas gang of unelected regulatory zealots.
Stephen Moore, senior economics writer
and editorial board member at The Wall Street Journal
The Obama socialist juggernaut is attempting to ride roughshod over the will of the people, skirt existing laws, and sideswipe the Constitution. In Democracy Denied, Phil Kerpen masterfully articulates the challenges we face, and, most importantly, provides common sense solutions and strategies you need to know.
Jerry Doyle, nationally syndicated radio host
As an elected city official, I have seen firsthand how the federal regulatory racket hurts local governments, citizens, and businesses. Phil Kerpen does an excellent job exposing abuses and offering constructive solutions to rein in the autocracy of unelected regulators.
Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com
Copyright 2011 Phil Kerpen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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DEDICATION
For Joanna, the love of my life,
and Lilly, the life of our love.
PREFACE
This book started with a chart scribbled on the white board in my office. It was early 2010, and it was already becoming clear that Democrats were headed for a tea party buzzsaw in the midterm elections. Moreover, with President Barack Obamas limited political capital exhausted by the pushes for ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, any other significant legislation was dead. But Obamas ambitions had not been diminished at all (nor would they be by their utter repudiation in the 2010 elections). I wanted to show how the Obama administration was disregarding Congress and the American people to accomplish its objectives through regulatory back doors.
My original version was developed into what you see on the next page by Americans for Prosperitys graphics whiz Tommy Downs.
As the chart shows, Obama will not take no for an answerfrom either the American people or from Congress. And the vast regulatory apparatus of the federal government gives him the machinery to disregard the legitimate legislative process and move forward to impose huge cap-and-trade-style energy taxes via Environmental Protection Agency regulation, to use his friends at the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the Internet, and to pursue his failed union agenda at the National Labor Relations Board.
The pattern extends to the two signature pieces of legislation that did pass: ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank, which addressed health care and the financial industry, respectively. Both of these sweeping laws included vast expansions of regulatory power that are, even now, being pushed further left through abuses of the appointment process and aggressive use of federal regulatory power.
Glenn Beck loves the Obama Chart. The day I sent it to him, he said on his radio program: This just came in from Phil Kerpen. It is the Obama way of subverting the Constitution.
Beck continued: He has subverted the process, the legitimate process every step of the way. And nobody seems to have a problem with this. My thanks to Phil Kerpen for this. Phil, Ive got to show this on television. Its unbelievable. Its just unbelievable.
That was on March 16, 2010, and he did show an earlier version of the chart on his television program that night. Standing in front of the chart, Beck and his guest, Judge Andrew Napolitano, explained what was happening: